SQL Server collation and Sort Order

  • I am a newbie and please be patient with me.

    Should the type of SQL Server Collation and the different sort order be considered as a factor affecting the database performance?

    I would like to get some documentation to back up this - be it true or not. Many thanks to all in advance.

  • Well the short Answer is yes they affect the performance on sort operations, specially if dealing with LARGE tables.

    FROM BOL:

    In binary collations, comparisons and sorting are based strictly on the bit pattern of the characters. This is the fastest option. Because uppercase characters are stored with different bit patterns than their corresponding lowercase characters, and accented characters have different bit patterns than characters without accents, binary sort orders are always case-sensitive and accent sensitive. Binary collations also ignore dictionary sequences that have been defined for specific languages. They simply order the characters based on the relative value of the bit patterns that represent each character. While the bit patterns defined for Latin characters, such as 'A' or 'z', are such that binary sorting yields the correct results, the bit patterns for some extended characters in some code pages may be different than the ordering sequence defined in dictionaries for the language associated with a collation. This can lead to occasional ordering and comparison results that are different than what a speaker of the language might expect.

    I am not going to post the whole page but have a look at :

    "Selecting Collations" in BOL for more details

     


    * Noel

  • Noeld,

    Many thanks for pointing me to the right direction.

    Regards

    Herbie

  • The BOL reading was most interesting.

    This could be a stupid question. What is/are the argument(s) for a CASE-INSENSITIVE or CASE-SENSITIVE option?

    I would appreciate if someone could kindly explain please.

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